Aldrin read those two messages twice and he couldn't help but feel worried over his own Dimensional Clone or in fact, for his IDLE Points income this run.
The Dimensional Clone was being sent to the same Lower Dimension. And every time, only its notoriety, if it was caught in the act, would be reset.
Those Ants it killed remained in this dimension and were slowly but surely making an impact in the nearby Ant Colony.
He was expecting this kind of development. However, in his estimation, it was too soon!
Normally an ant colony has a population of thousands or even millions. A few hundred Worker Ants could be replaced easily by new hatchlings and they usually didn't care about the dead.
How will he easily kill those Worker Ants now?
To maximize his income, he was planning on focusing on the Easy difficulty Worker Ants than risk it by hunting the easier-to-kill Caterpillars.
If he got drenched with its body juices again, not only one but an entire battalion of Soldier Ants would come the Dimensional Clone's way as he had observed earlier.
But because of this new situation, that plan would be hindered.
After contemplating for a while, Aldrin dropped the plan and just decided to observe the situation first.
"Before everything else, there's that new feature. By its name, the Dimensional Clone might be able to circumvent the sudden change in difficulty to hunt a Worker Ant."
He watched as the Dimensional Clone landed on the ground and immediately moved towards the tall grasses to look for prey.
In less than a minute, it found a Worker Ant. Or… A group of Worker Ant.
Because they're all in Easy difficulty, the Dimensional Clone began to stalk them while sharpening the Wooden Stick it picked up on the way.
While that was happening, Aldrin moved his cursor to the new unlocked tab to check it.
With the dark sky outside his windows gradually brightening, Aldrin put his entire focus on the new set of pop-ups explaining the new tab.
Compared to the explanation with the Idle Shopping earlier, what was written this time was simple.
[Equipment: The Ability to arm and outfit the Dimensional Clone]
[Skills: Unlockable abilities to aid the Dimensional Clone in gaining more IDLE Points]
It's too simple.
Or more like, it's an explanation that he had already guessed just by reading the tab.
In short, it didn't help him at all.
Either way, Aldrin moved his cursor downwards to check on the clickable ones.
The Equipment and Skills tab was actually divided into two sections.
On the left side, there's a standing image of the Dimensional Clone that was all black and shadowy. Around it was boxes that corresponded to a type of equipment to be worn in it.
Counting those boxes, it amounted to eight pieces of equipment.
Weapon(R)
Weapon(L)
Head
Body
Arms
Legs
Feet
Back
"It's the typical equipment slots from the RPG or Adventure Games," Aldrin commented before moving his eyes below that part.
There's no such thing as inventory as a gamer would expect. Instead of that, the category of the equipment was listed along with a Level indication and how much it would cost for him to raise it.
And that meant the improvised Sword using a Wooden Stick wasn't categorized as a weapon.
[Level 0 Weapon(R): 10 IDLE Points]
[Level 0 Weapon(L): 10 IDLE Points]
[Level 0 Helm: 10 IDLE Points]
[Level 0 Body Armor: 10 IDLE Points]
[Level 0 Arm Guard: 10 IDLE Points]
[Level 0 Leg Guard: 10 IDLE Points]
[Level 0 Foot Guard: 10 IDLE Points]
[Level 0 Back Guard: 100 IDLE Points]
Apart from that Back Guard, everything was priced cheap… Initially, at least.
Moreover, he could switch any of the two Weapon Slots to a Shield for defensive purposes or a Bow for long-range attacks.
Following that, before he moved to check the Skills, Aldrin noticed a little note at the bottom.
[Everything in this tab is permanent upgrades and will be carried over to the next runs.*]
"Nice!" Aldrin couldn't help but exclaim.
However, before he could fully rejoice, he noticed a smaller note beneath it which explained the asterisk at the end.
[* This will only be true while the other tabs are still locked]
Upon reading that, Aldrin immediately guessed that… among the three still-locked tabs, there might be a feature that would wipe out the upgrades he put on this time.
For example, a Prestige feature that was a prominent feature among the idle games he encountered. It resets everything in exchange for a bonus.
Since this IDLE Database felt like a collection of idle games, that feature was definitely possible. That's why Aldrin already made a mental note to watch out for it.
As his eyes finally moved to the list of skills he could unlock for his Dimensional Clone, the first one on the list instantly made Aldrin smile blissfully as if he found paradise.
[Level 0 Multiply
Description: Dimensional Clone +1
Cost: 100 IDLE Points]
"My previous problem is now solved. With two Dimensional Clones, the speed at which they hunt down prey and gain IDLE Points will double!"
However, another thought passed through his mind…
'Wait, if I manually control it? Will I be able to control all the Dimensional Clones? Will my consciousness be cloned as well? That's kind of… scary.' Aldrin concluded.
But to stop himself from being derailed once more, his signature move, 'Slapping his own face to wake himself up and clear his mind' was initiated.
SLAP!
As the loud sound of that slap rang out in his room, Aldrin endured the stinging pain as he completed his check on the new features opened up to him.
At the moment, only the Multiply Skill was unlocked while the other skills were still grayed out.
Instead of seeing the skill, it was overlaid by the requirement to unlock each skill
For example, the Skill below Multiply requires Aldrin to upgrade any of the two Weapon equipment slots to Level 5. It was different for each Skill so… he had to manage it well.
Unfortunately, there's not even a preview of what kind of Skill would be unlocked. Aldrin could only guess depending on what type of equipment was needed.
Just like that one that needed a Level 5 Weapon, it's most likely an attack Skill.
After understanding and checking everything to make sure that he didn't miss anything, Aldrin minimized the Equipment and Skills tab and returned his focus to the Dimensional Clone.
At the moment, it had finally begun its assault on the group of five Worker Ants.
[The Dimensional Clone killed a Worker Ant by successfully ambushing it]
[You received 3 IDLE Points]
"Shrieek!"
While the Dimensional Clone successfully killed the first one in one swift strike to its head, the other four Worker Ants shrieked loudly before they all pounced towards the Dimensional Clone, their somewhat terrifying magnified pincers aiming to bite onto it.
The Dimensional Clone swiftly moved and dodged all of them.
At this point, a bunch of Easy difficulty Worker Ants wasn't a threat to it anymore. With the Dimensional Clone adapting Aldrin's careful nature, it danced around the four Worker Ants, delivering swift strikes and killing them one by one.
In less than five minutes, the Dimensional Clone gathered 15 IDLE Points!
At this point, Aldrin now had the option to upgrade any of the equipment slots but he remained unmoved.
In his mind, he better invest in an additional Dimensional Clone first rather than upgrade those.